Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
meeting has lapsed, I am forced in the interest of the truth<br />
<strong>to</strong> express my agreement with the above verdict of Rev.<br />
Hanssen [“Ambiguous and hazy…it is possible <strong>to</strong> read in<strong>to</strong><br />
their wording either the doctrinal conception of the<br />
Synodical Conference or the opposing conception of the<br />
ALC. And just for that reason they were and still are<br />
unacceptable <strong>to</strong> the synods of the Synodical Conference.”]<br />
The subject matter of these theses having been thoroughly<br />
discussed in several meetings of the committee and the<br />
Scripture truths having been established in the discussions,<br />
the representatives of the Synodical Conference found<br />
these very truths expressed in the proposed theses. In the<br />
light of the satisfac<strong>to</strong>ry oral discussions they seemed <strong>to</strong> be<br />
plain statements of the truth and entirely universal. To an<br />
outsider, who did not take part in the discussions, however,<br />
the ambiguities that nevertheless crept in<strong>to</strong> the phraseology<br />
are naturally more easy <strong>to</strong> detect. 204<br />
What is even more amazing is that in the very same issue of Quartalschrift,<br />
Meyer reports as well about the Minneapolis Theses, which established full altar and<br />
pulpit fellowship between Iowa, Buffalo and the Evangelical <strong>Lutheran</strong> Church. The very<br />
fact that Meyer confesses he was caught off guard by the announcement of the<br />
Minneapolis Theses shows again that <strong>Wisconsin</strong> and Missouri were unwittingly<br />
participating with church bodies that had a dual agenda. Even when they did recognize<br />
the dual agenda, they seemed unwilling <strong>to</strong> deal with the theological and practical<br />
ramifications.<br />
The pleas of the “minority” if the Norwegian Synod, who,<br />
for conscience sake could not enter in<strong>to</strong> the proposed<br />
union…were ignored, the members of the “minority,” both<br />
pas<strong>to</strong>rs and congregations were ruthlessly forced out of the<br />
synod, and have since been repeatedly molested in their<br />
peaceful church work. The wrong perpetrated by the former<br />
Norwegian Synod on the “minority” must certainly be<br />
righted before any church fellowshipping with the<br />
Norwegian <strong>Lutheran</strong> Church can find God’s approval. Are<br />
204 E.C. Fredrich, “<strong>Wisconsin</strong> Inter-Church Relations in the First Third of this Century.” <strong>Wisconsin</strong><br />
<strong>Lutheran</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> On-line Essay File. http://www.wlsessays.net/files/FredrichCentury.pdf (Last accessed<br />
July 19, 2010).<br />
107